Impact of bogie cavity shapes and operational environment on snow accumulating on the bogies of high-speed trains

Abstract

In this paper, the snow accumulation on the bogies of high-speed trains has been investigated using a numerical simulation method based on the unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations (URANS) coupled with the Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The effects of bogie cut outs’ shape, running speed of high-speed trains and snow particle density and diameter on the snow accumulation and particle movement characteristics are discussed. The results show that the bogie installation region with inclined plates shows better anti-snow performance than the configuration with straight plates, which greatly affects the flow structure and snow concentration distribution in the upper space of bogie regions. The running speed of high-speed trains has dominant effect on the snow accumulation on the bogies, and the snow accumulation issue of bogie becomes more serious with increasing running speed. Furthermore, the snow particle density and diameter also have large influence on the snow accumulation on the bogies. With the increase of snow particle density and diameter, the flow range at height direction around bogie region of snow particles become lower and the quality of snow accumulation decrease significantly.